More Pictures!

Our friend, Rachel Hurley (rachelandthecity.com and scenestars.net), has posted some more photos from our Beale Street Music Fest set. Thanks, Rachel!

We're gearing up for the month of June, as we'll be doing some very different shows. The first part of June, we'll be playing the Germantown High School 25-year reunion. In the middle part of the month, we'll do an acoustic set for families at St. Jude's Target House. Then, at the end of the month, we'll be at the Germantown Library, as part of their summer reading program. We'll perform, of course, and do some Q&A about our songwriting process, etc. Should be a fun month!

Stay tuned here and to centralstandards.com for updates on these shows, as well as other late-breaking news! And, if you haven't picked up one of those new T-shirts yet, head over to the site for a peek! We're working toward on-line ordering, but for now, send us an e-mail or reply here, if you're interested.

Thank You, Friends (wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you)

When Alex Chilton sang that lyric after Big Star had so unfortunately not become big stars, somehow I think it was a little bitter and tongue-in-cheek. For us, there couldn't be a more apt way to describe our experience this weekend. We had two great shows, and it was a pleasure to celebrate with local friends and family, as well as several who came from as far away as Iowa, Illinois, Texas, North Carolina, etc to support us. Thanks again to Dennis, Ric, Luca and Rock 103 for putting it all in motion. When we say we couldn't do it without you, we absolutely mean it. Thank you.*

Here's the outside of our trailer at Music Fest.

Here's the view from inside.

Friday night's show was one of those big musical highlights for us, as you can probably imagine. Despite the forecast, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful evenings we've had here in Memphis in quite awhile. It was gorgeous. Crystal blue sky. Most of us donned sunglasses.

Our 8-song set (consisting of Keeping Still, Secrets to Sing, Gumball Machine Diamond Ring, Nothing to See Here, Great Big Cosmic, So Much Clearer, Year 55 & If I Wanted You) flew by. There was a nice little crowd assembled by the time we started. Aside from the first three rows of kids who had presumably come early to get a spot before Jason Mraz, many of those there were our supporters, which made it even better. Many thanks to our friends Matt Geerdes and Kevin Ritz who roadied for us and took some great snapshots, too.




Saturday night at SiP went really well, too. We played an acoustic set featuring Matt Geerdes (yes, our "roadie"!) on electric lead guitar, mandolin, banjo and button accordion. Matt had to get on an Illinois-bound train immediately after the gig, so it got a little dicey at the end. He did make it! The premiere of Waheed AlQawasmi's video for "So Much Clearer" was well received. It looked great on the big screen! You can watch the video at Waheed's Web site. It should be posted on our site soon, as well. Here's a photo of the band, followed by the set list.

GUMBALL MACHINE DIAMOND RING
OTIS REDDING SONG
IN THE BOOKS
WHAT THEY MEAN
JAY-C'S BROKEN RADIO
CHANGED
PSYCHIC LULLABY
CAPTAIN, SHE'S LOST
PERPETUAL AFTERNOON
ROSEMARY
TEENAGE HEART
THANK YOU, HERMAN MANKIEWICZ
SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE
DON'T YOU STARE
GREATEST DAY
PEARL OF A GIRL

We will have a full set of photos from Friday night's event posted on our Web site very soon. You can also find photos of our brand new T-shirts there! Thanks to Amber Capps for designing these. They look great, and they're going fast, so don't delay!!

*We saw Big Star play a charming, albeit slightly uneven, set after ours on Friday. Though I missed the first half of the set due to a Standards merchandise fiasco, second half highlights included "Ballad of El Goodo" and cool tunes from the new record including "Lady Sweet" and "Mine Exclusively". What a treat to play on the same night as these guys.

And now for something completely different...

While everyone's geared up for Friday's big Music Fest set, we'll be doing a dramatically different kind of event on Saturday night. Hope all you locals will join us for the official premiere of our very first music video. As you may have read previously on this blog, our former student Waheed AlQawasmi has conceptualized, shot and edited a really fantastic video for our song "So Much Clearer" from Can't Remember the Last Time. The video will premiere on Saturday night around 8 p.m. at SiP Coffeehouse, inside the Midtown Artist Market. The store is right across the street from The Blue Monkey on Madison, near Overton Square. It's a great venue, and this promises to be a fun evening. We don't plan to make the video available for sale, so this is your best chance to see it...unless, of course, it's picked up by MTV2!

We'll introduce and run the video shortly after 8, and then the full band will perform a rare acoustic set, featuring special guest, the outrageously talented, Matt Geerdes, on mandolin and whatever other instruments he can get his hands on. Following our set, we'll show the video again for latecomers and all you critics who wish to analyze the piece a bit more carefully!! So, it'll be a busy weekend, but that's the way we like it. We'll also have some snazzy new Standards T-shirts available for sale both Friday and Saturday nights. They're available in limited quantities--so, get 'em while they're hot!!

In the meantime, here are some pictures from the video shoot. See you this weekend!!